Hard Lessons
by sleepyheadp
Summary: DSO agents Leon Kennedy and Sherry Birkin are sent out with express orders from the president to survey a fragile diplomatic mission in Iran. An important mission, one Leon hoped would be his last as he passed the torch to Sherry to keep alight against the ravages of Bioterrorism. To bad for him, he wasn't the only person who wanted him to "retire".


**Hard Lessons**

**-Chapter 1-**

**3 months after the New York incident**

_"One, two. One, two," _she huffed, taking mindful steps along the descent through the mountainous path, her partners slack form draped over her small shoulders in a fireman's carry. He was getting heavier, her unnatural stamina diminishing after their hell bent sprint from their captors hideout within the Iranian mountain range. Her eyes were watering from the biting cold and the sharp rocks which kept digging into her bare feet, their combined weight wreaking havoc on her frame.

_"Have to get to safety. Have to get farther away"_ she chanted in her head, various seminars and hostile environment survival tips running through her mind. "_Get distance, assess the enemy's ability of pursuit"_ was the first she remembered, knowing that what was following them had to run through the cold mountain foothills in pitch black night.

_"Determine your resources,"_ was the next tip and she winced. Her bodies ability of regeneration and the single 15 shot pistol shared between them would barely count as an advantage in this situation. Other than that they were just two US agents running for their lives in a hostile country with no means of communication with their HQ. She choked on a laugh, bitterness rising up the back of her throat at their plight. How the mission could have gone so badly still shook her frayed nerves.

Shouts echoed against the mountain walls. Her heart thundered a few beats as more adrenaline shot to her limbs, shrugging her partner steadier onto her shoulders. Her grip on his bloody leg and flesh torn wrist vice like as she stumbled down a sharp decline venturing away from the crude path.

More shouts, angry and closer. She stumbled faster using a freed hand to barely graze past tall jutting rocks racing to hell knows where. _"Just gotta get away. Just get away and we'll be alright." _Her breath caught when her leg fell further than anticipated, the left knee buckling under their combined weight and sending them both crashing to the rocky earth.

A spray of bullets shot through the air, high and wide missing their position completely.

Pain shot through her spine from the buckled knee, her eyes clenched shut while she blindly scraped across the ground to cover her partner's body, a silent scream stretching her mouth. Another spray of bullets pinged and ricocheted off the rock face, debris tumbling out into the black.

Forcing her eyes open she laid her chin on her partners back with the 9mm outstretched in her trembling hands pointed at where the gunfire came from. More shouts, definitely angry and possibly frustrated came to her straining ears.

"They can't find us…" a raspy voice muttered from beneath her.

"Leon!" she gasped, pulling back just enough to rest a hand on his shoulder, her brow knit in relief. His left palm dragged across the ground into a fist, his shoulder moving as if to raise.

"Hey now, don't move!" she whispered into his ear, her eyes straining to see through the night. Only from her peripheral did she see him turn his head achingly slow to look up at her.

"Sherry...What happened?" his good eye studied what he could see of her face, the other swollen shut and throbbing.

Her face went grim then, her brow contorted with worry.

"How much do you remember?"

Leon frowned, his memory hazy as the throbbing in his eye started to spread to the whole right side of his face.

"We… We were ambushed. A road side explosive flipped our humvee. Those of us who weren't hurt from the crash clashed with insurgents…" His voice trailed off. There was more to it, but he couldn't think past the growing haze.

Sherry was looking at him then, her eyes wide and intense. "Leon, is that the last you remember?"

He looked away, his good eye peering into the darkness for an answer.


End file.
